Worried about Spikey

Thanks yours too her name is Luna

I forgot to ask when is the last time she pooped? I hope your beardie is not already impacted from the sand.

He’s 3. We’ve always fed him every few days and I try different greens regularly but he doesn’t usually eat them. I will start doing it daily.

He pooped yesterday during his bath. Normal poop.

Ok cool that's a relief .I would go back to the petsore and try to get my money refunded on the sand and night light for bad advice.and offer him insects everyday as much as you dragon can eat if you can do that 2 times a day it's great if you can 3 hours before bed time be great if feeding 2 times a day.

Lol yeah! I found a reptile pet store in town. Going to head there tomorrow and get proper equipment! Thank you again for all of your help!

Hi there, Spikey may have a respiratory infection but it can also possibly be that he's breathing in the sand so getting rid of that would be good. And at 3 years old he only needs to eat insects every few days as you were doing, not twice a day. Twice a day is for babies + young juveniles, not adults. So just keep feeding him the way you were, offer greens as often as you want but live insects only every 2-3 days is fine. He looks to be a good weight and body proportion. He may need more calcium in his diet so just coat his bugs lightly when you feed him.

Oh, and be sure to add pics of your tank. It gets confusing when another poster adds their pics, I thought that was Spikey's tank and it looked much bigger than a 40 gal., but I see it's the other poster's beautiful tank.

We went out today and bought him a mat, new light, new cave and a new thermometer. Took out the sand and replaced it with a mat. I figured out he was very dehydrated. He’s had a bath and my son gave him water both out of a bowl and via a dropper. We managed to feed him one little piece of cucumber and we’ve left both food and water in his tank. He had a poop in his bath but only utrates. He did have a full poop about 2 days ago. I am still worried about his front leg because he’s not using it. When we tried to feed him he shook his head back and forth a few times. Is that normal? Also, his nails keep getting stuck on the mat, are we able to cut them? Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. I’ve also posted pics.

Thank you! ?

I can only post one pic right now...

Hi Chris that's great that you improved the enclosure if the nails are getting cut on the mat then I suggest not to use it it can hurt the dragon a vinyl tile is much better with no adhesive it be best if you take Spikey to a good herp vet sounds like he needs to get checked out about his leg and general well being it could be it hurts when Spikey put pressure on the leg about the head back and forth I really don't know about that is a nice enclosure and a good pic of Spikey I have thought he was 3 months but now it looks like 3 years lot of people use reptile carpet with no issues if you do take him to the vet ask to trim the nails as far as I know you do it the same as a cat or dog they have a quik too but if you don't know what you doing then I wouldn't I certainly don't have much experience trimming nails.

Reptile carpet won't work for large beardies, snagging nails and then a nightmare to keep clean after a large poo. Better off with non adhesive shelf liner, nothing too slippery, or plain old newspaper. I don't like ceramic tile either. esp. if a dragon has a hurt leg. I used to use a topsoil/sand mix in one of my largest enclosures, beardies love it. BTW, is his leg swollen ?


Your choice of lighting is extremely important, what type of uvb do you have ? Look carefully for the brand, nae + wattage. Is it a long tube, is it on top of the screen ? Post a pic of all the lighting, showing the actual bulbs. Without good uvb, beardies can't absorb calcium, even if they are given it daily.

Can you take him outside in the sun for natural uvb daily ? Not in a glass tank, but just sitting in the grass with him. That may help strengthen his bones.